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A peltier or TEC will cost about $20-35 depending on it's performance which is rated in Watts. You can see some at http://www.millisec.com They are made of a sandwich formed by two ceramic plates with an array of small Bismuth Telluride cubes in between. When electricity is applied, heat
is removed from one side of the device to the other where it must be removed with a high performance heatsink. A 72 Watt peltier creates a significant amount of heat on it's hot side, even more then the CPU itself. If you press the cold side of a peltier/TEC against a coldplate (think of it as a contact plate) and then the cold plate in contact against the CPU, it can bring the CPU into the sub zero temp levels.

Water cooling involves attaching a waterblock to your CPU that has one or more channels for water to flow through. In essence, you flow cool water over the CPU where the heat from the CPU warms up the water and the water carries the heat away from the CPU into another part of the case where it's allowed to cool passively (radiator) or actively with the aid of a radiator and fan(s). (Similar to how a car radiator cools the car)

#rotor and jopey from this forum are the ppl who can set you up with custom water cooling solutions.

p.s. #rotor & jopey.. I'm gonna have to start charging for these plugs

Heres a question: Why not do both. On the comp im building this summer, Im gonna go with a water cooled peltier setup which is much more effective than either of them alone.

Peltier Alone: Not too much less than room temp, sometimes you get get pretty low, but nothing incredible

Water Alone: ~55F - 80F

Peltier + Water: 14F - 40F

Incase you dont know, thats pretty f*ckin cold.

However, if I was you and I had never used and 'extreme' cooling, I would start off with a watercooler and then move onto a combo. Watercoolers are safer than peltiers overall and allow for large bragging rights ;]

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-- QuaNtaX -- "It is not until you have lost everything that you are free to do anything." - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

for sure, combining both ways is going to work better, you can even go another step by replacing your Radiator\fans with an active cooler.... that way using 3 stages in your cooling system, it will get you into the -30ºC and -40ºC range if not better like -49ºC

hahahaha.... bragging rights indeed, my wife has the right to brag, her pc is H²O
cooled and she sure does exercise her right to do so, to it's full extent....
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Go ahead...... lick my BLOCK
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